


Little Wonders

by GaryTheFish



Series: Hope is a Four Letter Word [39]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Thor (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Established Relationship, F/M, Fluff, Loki - Canon Divergence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-09
Updated: 2016-09-09
Packaged: 2018-08-14 02:50:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,373
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7995850
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GaryTheFish/pseuds/GaryTheFish
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Let it go<br/>Let it roll right off your shoulder<br/>Don't you know<br/>The hardest part is over?</p><p>Our lives are made<br/>In these small hours<br/>These little wonders<br/>These twists and turns of fate<br/>Time falls away<br/>But these small hours<br/>These small hours still remain</p>
            </blockquote>





	Little Wonders

By the time Simon dropped them off at their hotel almost an hour later, Aeslin was practically asleep on her feet. It had been her third intercontinental flight in less than a week, and Loki could see exhaustion in her every move. He wondered if Simon could as well, though she was unfailingly polite and kept up her end of the conversation with remarkable skill.

“Keep the itinerary,” the professor said, referring to the paper Loki had shoved in his back pocket before getting into the taxi at the airport. “Might be useful tomorrow, but the best thing to do right now is get to bed, then up bright and early tomorrow morning. Less jet lag that way.” He headed back to waiting cab. “You’re on your own for now, but dinner at seven-thirty tomorrow. Don’t be late.”

“Where-”

“Bottom of the list, Longshanks,” he said almost kindly as he opened the door; Claremont nodded to Aeslin. “Might want to get a baggage cart for that one.” Aeslin stuck her tongue out at Claremont and got a grin in return. “Glad to have you back on the old sod, me duck. This’ll be fun. Off to bed with you.” He folded himself into the back of the cab with a stern look. “And that means _sleep_ ,” he told them in the instant before slamming the door shut.

They watched together as the cab pulled away, and after a moment, Loki cleared his throat.

“Why do they always assume… no, never mind. Any more brotherly figures I need to know about?”

She sighed, pulling up the handle of her bag and turning toward the entrance to the hotel, and he walked beside her, dragging his own suitcase behind him.

“I mean honestly,” he went on with a bit of a grin. “Do you just pluck them from the air like sparrows? How many does a woman like you actually need?”

“About four less than I have,” she admitted as the lobby doors whooshed open. “I don’t do it on purpose; it’s not as though I can’t take care of myself.” A smirk. “Most of the time.”

He merely smiled, resting his hand on the small of her back as she spoke to the clerk at the desk, got keys and was directed to the elevators. She leaned against him on the way up; he tightened his arm around her. Exhaustion was creeping up on him as well, and he was glad when the elevator stopped at their floor. They stumbled into the room, and Loki flipped on a light. Clean, well-appointed. A simple two-bed like the ones they had stayed in on their endless wanderings between New York and Malibu. Loki dropped his suitcases near the closet, then let himself flop back onto the nearest bed, feet still on the ground and arms outstretched. The bed was absurdly comfortable despite being smaller than the one he’d become accustomed to, and he closed his eyes blissfully.

“Sorry about the bed,” came her voice. “It’s still tourist season, and school’s starting soon. There weren’t many non-ridiculous options.”

He languidly pressed a finger to his lips in a shushing motion. “It’s perfect,” he said before stretching out his arm again and settling deeper into the comforter.

“Even with shoes on?”

“Especially with shoes on. Hush, love. You’re interrupting the moment.”

He heard a gentle laugh as Aeslin shucked off her boots and tossed them next to their bags; she began to walk past him to the next bed. He raised one leg, easily blocking her path, and felt her pivot. After a second, she climbed atop him, snugging her legs along his sides, tucking her arms in close and resting her head next to his on the soft comforter. He wrapped his arms around her, one hand tracing long, lazy lines up and down her back.

“We did it,” he said, lips brushing her forehead as he turned his head a little to the side.

A faint, sleepy giggle. “We did.”

“It doesn’t seem real. You. Me. London. Together. No one else.”

She made a pleased, noncommittal sort of noise; it was lost somewhere between his neck and the bed as she snuggled impossibly closer. “We should unpack,” she said, her voice a little muffled.

“We should.” He didn’t move, and neither did she.

“At least get more comfortable.”

“Mmhmm.”

“Turn off the lights. Something.”

His fingers idly rubbed slow, soothing circles along her spine. “Agreed.”

Both stayed where they were; eventually, he felt her shift, raise her head and untangle one arm. There was a quick, familiar pressure on his eardrums, and then, with a thud and a click, the lights in the room went out. The pressure dissipated, and she curled into his arms again.

“Thank you,” he said and felt her smile.

“You’re welcome.”

“How’s the head?” He stroked his fingers through her hair.

Her voice was sleepy. “Worth it.” Her breath evened out almost at once, and Loki smiled as she finally relaxed against him completely, face pressed against his neck.

He briefly thought of moving her, if only to find a blanket for her besides his arms or to get both of them fully on their own beds before morning (he had no idea how far away morning was or how long they’d been resting, and there were Rules, after all); he was only halfway through figuring out how to get his boots off without disturbing her when the day caught up with him at last and he fell into a dreamless sleep.

***

He woke the next morning to the sound of her flitting through the room, trying to search her bags in the dark with the least amount of noise. Loki was properly in bed, socks and shoes gone but otherwise dressed and with no memory of how he’d gotten there. Still groggy, he pushed further into the blankets. There was a soft swish of fabric, a faint scent of lemon verbena ( _enchantment or sensibility_ , his brain helpfully supplied, _and both so accurate_ ); he slithered a hand from beneath the blankets in search of her. A wisp of air told him he’d missed by mere inches, and he cracked open one eye.

“Why so early?” he asked, voice rough. “It can’t be more than two in the morning.”

“Eight, actually,” came her cheerful reply as she snatched open the blackout curtains. Sunlight burst across Loki’s bed and directly across his face; he let out an undignified groan as he dove beneath a pillow.

“Is this hell?”

“Nope.” She yanked his comforter off in one vicious pull as he uselessly grabbed at it with his free hand, tossing it onto her bed. “This is jet lag. Come on. Hot shower. Tea and scones downstairs. I’ve already checked; three different kinds, and if _that’s_ not enough to get you out of bed, I’m going to have to resort to more drastic measures. You’ve got until a count of five to show life, or I’m invoking Rule Thirteen.”

“No. You wouldn’t da-”

“ _In_ the event of a standoff exceeding what has been determined by Party A - that’s me,” she went on ruthlessly, “to be a suitable amount of time, and after verifying that Party B - which would be _you_ \- is probably of sound mind and more than likely of sound body - which I confirmed you were early this morning when I tried to drag your deadweight ex-Jotun carcass into a semblance of _actual_ bed, much to your _adorably_ pouty dismay - Party A is fully authorized to attempt an extraction by any…”

He spoke over her. “...by any means necessary, and if you mean to tell me that a count of five is _any_ where close to a suitable amount of time to get someone out of bed from a dead sleep, you are _sadly_ mistaken, you little menace.”

“You’re probably right.”

Loki had barely closed his eyes again when there was a sudden thump onto the bed next to him; he bounced a little when she landed too close.

“Five seconds is too long,” she continued, jumping lightly on the mattress near his hips, just enough to firmly jostle him every time she landed. “Lots to do today, and if we time it right, we might be able to ride the Ferris wheel before we meet Simon for dinner.”

“The Ferris what?” he asked, more as a distraction than anything; he was carefully timing her hops, and he grabbed her around the knees as she came down. She laughed, overcorrecting, and they both slid from the bed into a heap on the floor. He pinned her to the ground and narrowed his eyes at her, but she merely leaned up and kissed the tip of his nose.

“Morning,” she said with a brilliant smile, and he bit the inside of his cheek to keep from grinning back.

“Brat,” he replied, nibbling her earlobe none-too-gently. She snickered and tried to shove him away.

“And you love it.”

Another nip. “Says you.”

“Says _you_. Better hurry. Breakfast won’t last much longer, and I think there might even be coddled eggs.”

“Good thing _something_ around here is treated well,” he said, pushing himself up with a sigh and heading for the bathroom; he shut the door rapidly to block the pillow she launched at his retreating back, and he laughed as he flicked on the shower. London was going to be very fine indeed.

***

Aeslin was relatively familiar with the Tube from her previous visits to London, and Loki quickly caught on, as well. They emerged from the Charing Cross station on schedule; the day had become a little more muggy since they’d left the hotel. Loki felt the treacherous curls at his neck and just behind his ears begin to respond to the humidity. He smoothed them as casually as possible, but he could tell it was already too late. He caught her amused glance; taking the bull by the horns, he faced her.

“Is the weather always going to be like this?”

“Hopefully,” she told him, earning herself a glare that she blithely ignored while she combed her fingers along his temple and tangled them into the mess that was slowly forming. Her smile was completely unrepentant. “Besides,” she continued, “I kind of like it.”

He rolled his eyes as he took her hand, but as they wove their way through the crowds on the street, he noticed he was already thinking of how to find some sort of middle ground. A faint smirk wove its way onto his face and then disappeared almost immediately when something across the street caught his eye. He stopped dead.

She kept walking for a second, not realizing he was no longer moving, and rebounded when she reached the limit of their arms. He stayed put, and Aeslin followed his gaze.

“No,” she said, able to read the _Rare and Secondhand Books_ sign dangling above the shop entrance.

“But-”

“ _No_ ,” she repeated firmly, tugging him in the direction they’d been heading; he planted his feet and didn’t budge, a trick he had learned long ago from his brother. “We’ve got too much to do today. It’s okay. We live here now. We’ll have plenty of time. Every weekend, if you want.” She leaned back, both hands wrapped around his wrist, to no avail.

“Five minutes.”

“Impossible,” she said, putting her entire weight into pulling ineffectually.

“But that’s-”

“That’s a _no_. Come on. You know what would happen. You’d go in. I’d have to go in after you. We’d be worse than the lotus eaters; we wouldn’t come out until sometime tonight after the furniture store’s closed and we’ve completely missed dinner with Simon. Million dollar house, and you’re going to end up sleeping in the bathtub for the foreseeable future because we never got around to buying beds like _people_.”

“The _what_ eaters?”

Her jaw dropped. “You didn’t read _The Odyssey_?”

“Read the summary,” he replied, voice distracted. “Seemed a little too uncomfortably relevant at the time, so I gave it back.” He looked longingly at the red brick building. “Bet they’ve got a copy in _there_ , though. Maybe more than one. We should go find out.”

Aeslin shook her head as she braced herself and tried tugging at a different angle. “No, no, _no_.”

Nothing for it, then. He sighed a little as he tilted his head to look her in the face at last, and she realized a second too late what he was doing. Her voice took on the faintest hint of desperation.

“Oh no, you don’t,” she began helplessly, starting to let go of his arm, but he flicked his wrist at the last second, grabbing both of her slender wrists firmly in one hand and turning the tables. “Not the puppy eyes _not_ the puppy eyes, you beautiful arrogant gorgeous bastard, _have you NO SHAME-”_

He let her talk herself out for a few seconds ("- right here in the middle of  _London-_ "), then added an ever-so-slightly tragic smile, knowing _exactly_ what it would look like to her.

“It’s almost my birthday,” he added wistfully, getting rewarded with a strangled, inarticulate noise that made several passers-by give them curious glances.

“ _Fine_ ,” she muttered after a deep breath. “One hour, and you have to promise to kiss me at the top of the London Eye.”

“Two hours, and I’ll kiss you any place you’d like.” He wiggled his eyebrows, a smirk replacing his formerly innocent grin. She yanked one hand free to smack him on the bicep.

“Ninety minutes, and behave yourself.”

He scoffed as he pulled her to the edge of the crosswalk, waiting for the light to change. “Please. Like you’d know what to do with me if I did.”

***

Three hours, two translations of _The Odyssey,_ one used copy of _The Iliad_ , a handful of business cards and a tentative commission later, they returned to where they’d started. Loki tucked his rapid sketches into the bag holding his purchases and grinned at her.

“There, now. Was that so bad?”

She shifted her own bag with a wry smile and tucked her arm through his as they headed down the street to the furniture store Simon had recommended.

“Shut up,” was all she said.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Beta read by the magnificent Xogs. All mistakes are mine. Also inspired by that same Xogs, who requested to see what a slightly whiny ex-god of mischief trying to get his way would look like. 
> 
> Also many many thanks to LokiSpeaks for letting me pick her brain about London, since I've never been. She's a delightful resource. :)
> 
> Feedback appreciated! I really like this one. :) Love you all! <3 Happy Friday!
> 
> Late addition: I forgot to give credit - Title and lyrics from "Little Wonders" by Rob Thomas. Apologies!


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